Gospel Life, Part Five: The Where of the Mission, Environments

When Jesus tells us to go and make disciples in Matthew 28:19, the Greek translation is more like He is saying, “as you go, make disciples.” As we’ve seen in a previous post, we should not confine discipleship to a place or an event – , it should be seen in the everyday moments of life.

At Summit Crossing, we believe that there are at least four environments where disciples are regularly made. Environment does not mean “two hours every Monday morning at Starbucks” or for thirty minutes at mom’s morning out.” Environments are regular places that are not bound by time where we regularly live life. Let’s quickly examine these four environments:

HOME

This is the smallest and simplest unit and refers specifically to each individual household. In essence, the Home is both the beginning of the Collective and the driving point of each Collective. We equip the church extensively and should expect to see exponential Gospel reproduction from the Home. In a word, this environment is characterized by Family. This is where understanding our identity as Family begins.

DNA

This is a very critical piece of Gospel Community. Discipleship is often overlooked or over-programmed. At this environment, smaller groups with the Missional Community engage in intentional and regular discipleship. This is the most efficient way to initiate and grow spiritual depth both in understanding and in radical obedience. This is also the place where reproducing fellow passionate disciples happens best. In a word, this layer is characterized by Intimacy. This environment is a non-negotiable. Healthy Collectives on Mission will be most characterized by a healthy DNA layer This is where specific equipping takes place.

MISSIONAL COMMUNITY

This is the middle ground. Missional Communities (MC) are the heartbeat of both the gathered and the scattered church. The MC should be heavily influenced both by what happens at the DNA and Collective levels. However, the MC also pushes folks hard in each direction. It pushes to be smaller (Home and DNA) and to be much bigger (Collective). In a word, this layer is characterized by Community. This is where the corporate body exercises care and gospel application from an individual heart that has been discipled.

COLLECTIVE

A Collective is a group of geographically related Missional Communities. A Collective is the large, loud, and radial expression of corporate communities. This environment takes discipled hearts (Home and DNA) and obedient communities (MC) and explodes these Kingdom expressions into growing concentric circles of our world -from the neighborhood, to the city, to the ends of the earth! This is the environment where the “big tasks” of the global commission get accomplished. It is both the big front door where the world enters into Gospel community and the big exit door where the Church enters the world. In a word, this environment is described by Corporate. This is where the church engages the world at large.

You can see that we have countless opportunities to pursue discipleship in multiple places, in multiple ways, and in the everyday moments of life.

We have now covered the Who, What, How, and Where of Gospel Mission. We will finish up with one final discussion on how all this truly goes together to produce healthy Collectives.